The City of Hamilton, Ravalli County Recycling, and Recycling Works of Missoula have teamed up to provide a glass recycling opportunity for Bitterrooters on Saturday, October 3rd at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The recycling event will take place at the north end of the Fairgrounds and can be accessed by entering the north gate located on Old Corvallis Road. You pay $1 per gallon bucket-full or $5 per five-gallon bucket-full to have your glass recycled and help save the planet by reducing what is deposited into our local landfills.
Montana has not yet established a glass recycling infrastructure, and there are no bottle manufacturers in the state to melt and reuse our glass. Recycling Works in Missoula collects, crushes, and stores glass locally and then ships it down to Momentum Recycling in Salt Lake City. Momentum is the closest processing facility with the means to efficiently create and use aggregate.
“They do a fantastic job of separating and sorting glass so it can be turned back into bottles and products like home insulation and sandblasting material. We are also happy to support local projects that utilize our glass for reuse purposes,” said Ted Geilan of Recycling Works.
Ravalli County Recycling, the non-profit that recently closed down its recycling operation in Hamilton, is still interested in furthering recycling efforts in the Bitterroot in any way it can.
“The board sat down recently and decided that one thing we could do would be to work with the City of Hamilton and with the new company in Missoula, Recycling Works MT, to provide Bitterrooters a chance to get some glass recycled at a minimum cost,” said Pam Aikins.
According to Aikins, Ravalli County Recycling volunteers will be on hand at the Fairgrounds to process the glass being dropped off in a drive-in/drive-out scenario, so you don’t even have to get out of your vehicle. The charge is $1 per gallon of unbroken glass bottles of any color. No lids are accepted but labels can be left on the bottles and the bottles should be clean. Types of bottles accepted include wine bottles, beer bottles, spirit bottles and clean food jars.
Aikin said that you don’t have to bring the bottles in a plastic bucket. A burlap bag or other container could be used, and the cost would be estimated. No other glass is accepted. No broken glass. No window glass. No light bulbs, etc. She said the board hopes to sponsor the event quarterly.
CDC guidelines for social distancing, masking, and sanitizing will be followed.